The Danube Strategy provides an opportunity to strengthen links between the Danube and the Black Sea Basins.

The EU Strategy for the Danube Region will help the region flourish and develop the economic potential of the Danube River – all the while working to restore water quality and manage environmental risks. László Borbély, Minister of Environment and Forests, speaks to Danube Watch about balancing environmental issues in the Strategy, and how the EU Strategy for the Danube Region will influence work in the Black Sea.

Danube Watch: Are environmental issues sufficiently considered in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR)?
Borbély: Generally the EUSDR promotes a sustainable development approach, a balance between development and environmental protection as well as the necessity to apply the environmental acquis communautaire in line with EU 2020 vision and European Sustainable Development Strategy. This means that economic and infrastructural developments shall go hand in hand with environmental protection, environmental concerns shall be integrated in different policies and only projects consistent with the environmental legislation shall be promoted.

This philosophy can be followed in specific priority areas as well, for example the support of sustainable growth, increase in the use of renewable energies, modernisation of the transport sector with the aim of making it more environmentally friendly, promotion of ‘green’ tourism, etc.

It is really important that final targets and implementation also reflect the integration of environmental concerns.

Danube Watch: Where do you expect the greatest benefits through the Danube Strategy?
Borbély: In my opinion, the greatest benefits of the Danube Strategy are related to the integrated water resources management in the region. And when I say this I am not only thinking of the more effective implementation of the Danube River Basin Management Plan, which will contribute to a better aquatic environment, but also to the improvement of the drinking water supply, to a more sustainable water use and to a better management of the environmental risks related to water. Romania is a downstream country; we are expecting visible results from the activities implemented in the upstream part of the basin, but we are also determined to bring our contribution in order to improve the environmental conditions, especially in the Danube Delta and the Black Sea area.

Danube Watch: How will Romania tie the country into the strategy?
Borbély: Romania, as the co-initiator of the Strategy with Austria, has the objective to remain the main driving force of the implementation, and together take a leading role for the Strategy to become a success. At the moment it is really important to promote relevant projects, to find suitable funding sources for them, to demonstrate to the wider public the added value of the Strategy as well as to maintain the political commitment linked to the EUSDR. Furthermore it is necessary to assure the involvement of key actors and stakeholders. Internally, together with all institutions involved, we are acting towards this.

As for the benefits, the strategy is a good opportunity for us to strengthen and enhance cooperation with the more developed parts of the region, as well as with non-Member States, through transnational and cross-border cooperation projects, and to increase our absorption capacity.

Danube Watch: How does Romania help bridge the Danube Region and the Black Sea Region?
Borbély: As the largest country in the Danube River Basin, Romania has a very important role in the implementation of the Danube River Protection Convention, particularly related to the improvement and the protection of the marine environment of the Black Sea. As a Black Sea country, we are interested in the more active involvement of the Black Sea Riparian countries in the protection of the sea. This will require an intensified work within the basins of the rivers discharging into the sea. In this respect, we have always promoted the necessity to take up similar commitment and responsibility at the Black Sea Commission level as on the level of the Danube Basin, promoting also a better cooperation between ICPDR and Black Sea Commission.

When Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU, the Black Sea became an EU sea. Now our efforts are focused on the accession of the EU as Party to the Black Sea Convention and to the implementation of the EU Marine Strategy. We are confident that the implementation of EUSDR will contribute to an increased connection between the Danube River and Black Sea, by making an institutional link between the sea and its basin, and will provide a framework to develop joint projects. In this spirit, together with Bulgaria, we have undertaken the responsibility to implement the action under Priority 4: to further strengthen integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) and maritime spatial planning (MSP) practices on the western shores of the Black Sea.

However, we have to always remember that the Danube is only one of the rivers that are discharging their waters into the Black Sea, and without a proper involvement from the eastern part of the sea basin we will not reach the goal of the Marine Strategy.

Danube Watch: Europe, 2020. What will be different due to the Danube Strategy?
Borbély: The Danube Strategy overlaps with and clearly supports the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy, thus it is an additional tool to contribute to its objectives – to a smart, sustainable, inclusive growth. A series of strategy actions shall make an important contribution to achieving broader Europe 2020 goals. This is also reflected in the Declaration of the Bucharest Danube Summit from 8 November, 2010 when eight Member States committed “towards making the Strategy an effective instrument which will contribute to the successful implementation of Europe 2020 Strategy”.